Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Swastika I.

This is coolbert:

"The American people pay too much interest to trivialities and appearances!!" - - Bert.

The swastikain western culture is a symbol that has very negative connotations.

But not so in Asian cultures [and to some extent in non-Asian cultures too]:

"The term [swastika] is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee [sa-wah-dee] is from the same root and carries the same implication."

"It has long been widely-used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism."

"The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika (in Devanagari, स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck"

"The symbol was introduced to Southeast Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is a common sight in Indonesia. It also was adopted independently by several Native American cultures."

Dig this stuff now. From the Chicago Tribune just yesterday. The type of stuff that just drives one crazy.

"A $600,000 mistake"

"Google Earth is about to cost the U.S. navy $600,000. Some intrepid Googlers discovered recently that a Navy base in Southern California bears a striking resemblance to a swastika from the air. Apparently no one noticed that the four building complex, built in the late 1960's, looks like the offensive symbol from above until early last year. Local resident have lobbied the Navy for action ever since, and therefor the Navy has decided to drop $600K for landscaping and architectural alterations in order to camouflage the shape. At which point, it will look like . . . a swastika covered in expensive shrubbery."

Mumbai - - "Leaders of India's Jewish community expressed outrage Sunday over a new line of bedspreads called The Nazi Collection from a Mumbai-based home furnishing company that used swastikas in its promotional material."

Are people being overly [perhaps excessively] sensitive here? Those buildings on the navy base were intended to offend? BUT ONLY IF YOU SAW THEM FROM ABOVE!! [The Googlers are looking at photographs from a satellite in this case!] The buildings are forty years old and no one has made a fuss until now! Your tax dollars hard at work to assuage SOMEONES feelings??!!

[several years ago there was a national evening news item about some man in Virginia that had vanity license plates that said, "Zyklon B".]

Appearances and trivialities - - YES - - substance - - NO??!! Right now, as we speak, the janjaweed in Darfur are murduring, raping, looting. In Burma, the junta is killing Buddhist monks by the hundreds [?]. But that building on the navy base - - well, you get it!!